[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Caught a short piece on CNBC about some activity with Boeing and Lockheed Martin and the Army using (I assume ) these satellites and additional ground equipment so that ground equipment would not have to stop for communications activity.

Do you know if it is a fact that they have to stop when communicating thru the satellites??

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Found this:

USAF Awards $472 Million Deal For Transformational Comms Program

SPACEWAR USAF Awards $472 Million Deal For Transformational Comms Program TCM represents the next step toward transitioning the Department of Defense wideband and protected communications satellite architecture into a single network comprised of multiple satellite, ground, and user segment components. The system will network mobile warfighters, sensors, weapons, communications command and control nodes located on UAVs, piloted aircraft, on the ground, in the air, at sea or in space. TCM is one of several elements that make up the Transformational Communications architecture that the national security space community has developed over the last two years. Sunnyvale - Jan 27, 2004 A joint Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman team has been awarded one of two industry contracts valued at approximately $472 million to enter the Risk Reduction and System Definition phase of the U.S. Air Force's Transformational Communications MILSATCOM (TCM) Space Segment. TCM will provide thousands of users with significantly improved, highly mobile, beyond line-of-sight protected communications to support the future battlefield. Under the contract awarded today by the MILSATCOM Joint Program Office, Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, at Los Angeles AFB, Calif. Two industry teams will conduct risk reduction demonstrations and system trade studies over a 27-month period. This effort will culminate with a multi-billion dollar development contract to be awarded to a single contractor in 2006. "This contract will give our team the opportunity to demonstrate the maturity of our technologies and define a system that optimizes the various features of TCM so that we are prepared to move into the next phase of the program, said Rick Skinner, vice president, transformational communications for Lockheed Martin. "We stand ready to support the MILSATCOM community on this important initiative and look forward to delivering a TCM solution that provides the protected, wireless, over-the-horizon extension of the Global Information Grid." The Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman team also includes Rockwell Collins, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, L-3 Communications, Stratogis, Cisco, C&H Associates, and ViaSat in an effort to bring together industry leaders and expertise in all aspects of the end-to-end architecture. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Sunnyvale, Calif. Will serve as the prime contractor and systems integrator for the TCM Space Segment. Northrop Grumman will provide the satellites' transformational payloads, end-to-end communication systems engineering, and payload ground processing. "The investments made over the past decade by our team and the U.S. Government in technologies like laser communications and routing processors will enable warfighter access to a secure, protected, global broadband network, eliminating bandwidth as an operating constraint, " said Stuart Linsky, program manager, transformational communications at Northrop Grumman. "This contract will provide us the means to implement these critical technologies in space near the end of this decade." TCM represents the next step toward transitioning the Department of Defense wideband and protected communications satellite architecture into a single network comprised of multiple satellite, ground, and user segment components. The system will network mobile warfighters, sensors, weapons, communications command and control nodes located on UAVs, piloted aircraft, on the ground, in the air, at sea or in space. TCM is one of several elements that make up the Transformational Communications architecture that the national security space community has developed over the last two years. Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express SPACEWAR Northrop Grumman Receives Milsatcom Network Study Contract Reston - Jan 19, 2004 The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Command has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation's Mission Systems sector a contract to define the requirements needed to build a communications network for military, intelligence and space agencies. The Transformational Communications MILSATCOM (TCM) network, which will be based on a single, overarching communications architecture, will transform the way the Pentagon conducts its military operations. 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